Our friend Josh has been making the point that public revelations of predatory behavior only matter to people and entities who have to serve constituencies that care about such things. This seems an obvious point. The bachelor party at Scores is not going to get worked up about people objectifying the dancers, at least not on that particular night. It does mean, however, that the political/social consequences of engaging in such behavior will differ more based on who you are or what you serve than what you did.

Bill O'Reilly could get away with being Bill O'Reilly until he became a liability to Fox. Roy Moore might get elected to the senate even as Al Franken is pushed out because Franken's voters care and Moore's don't. Trump lives a life without consequences because the kind of people who really like Trump like to see him get away with things. Trump said as much during the campaign and he knew it because it was the basis of his popularity on The Apprentice and even before that.

Before Josh pointed this out, Hillary Clinton made the argument. How do you do deal with deplorables who take pride in being deplorable? Long-term, I think the Roy Moore's of the world are going to lose the cultural argument. But right now, the cultural right is letting their fascist flag fly. The extremism that was the anti-Clinton 90s militia movement that became the Tea Party, is now a right wing version of hippies -- an immoral majority that is, in fact, a minority, but that wields considerable influence where it (sometimes) counts.

There's no real kicker to this except to say that things are going to be weird.

A Party that doesn't fight for its own but does the opposition job for them is destined for impotence and irrelevance. Americans don't want purity, they want politicians who will fight for them against an opposition which would destroy them, their health care, their communities, their schools and their nation to win.

On Franken, recall, he asked the question that caused Sessions to recuse himself, that led to Mueller being appointed. So all the Democrat women, and now Schumer, want him to resign and not fight or wait out the ethics process and get to the facts.

Bad behavior is equal to predation? There is no gray area, no rehabilitation, no apology suffices? This is extremism of the worst kind. I’m shocked that my senator and women I’ve long admired have revealed themselves to be either so simplistic or so politically craven.

Where is the line between a dumb prank like the USO tour photo -- wrong, offensive, not funny -- and child molestation and other forms of actual sexual assault? To me, there's a world of difference between the behavior of Al Franken and the likes of Donald Trump, Roy Moore or even, not to be partisan, Anthony Wiener.

Repeated polls show about 70% of folks in his home state do not want him to resign. He should let that be his guide, not the desires of his colleagues trying to make a statement.

"In recent days, the Democratic women senators had spoken privately among themselves about the situation, agreeing that they could not tolerate Franken’s presence as allegations continued trickling out."

Guess what? I could tolerate him. So could millions of others. And least until the investigation was concluded. Whether these senators could manage to should not be the overriding factor here.

Franken has acknowledged, and apologized for, poor behavior and welcomed an Ethics Committee investigation. When he could not place himself in someone's account, he acknowledged the validity of an accuser's feelings. And he is being asked to leave.
People like Trump and Moore, who reject any responsibility for predatory conduct, grandstand about their own supposed character and disparage their accusers, face no consequences.

If the Democrats cave so easily on Franken, without even a thorough investigation and with anonymous accusers, they are a toothless opposition Party.

Meanwhile in a Trump hotel, Clarence Thomas's wife gives an award for "Defending Liberty" to James O'Keefe, head of Koch funded Project Veritas, which was just caught hiring a woman to try to sting the Washington Post with lies about her "abortion after teenage sex with Roy Moore."

Unless they grow a spine Democrats will always be eaten alive by the GOP. The break any rule, support any hideous candidate or policy, tell lies and more lies, refuse compromise, demonize and attack the opposition, and claim the high ground while standing neck deep in plutocrat $lime Party.

I agree with every word, NCD. I am hoping that in his speech to the Senate today he has the courage to soldier on and buck this show-boating. Who knew a waist was an erogenous zone? NOBODY, that’s who.

Democrats are cowards and holier-than thou purists. Even with the shit-storm that the country is enduring, the GOP will probably keep its seats to power. They don’t even have to work at it. The Dems wil make all the effort on their behalf.

Well, no, it doesn't include their caucus. They might be more effective that way, but Bernie for example represented people in his district in Vermont, not the Democratic Party.

hey, Al Franken could go independent. Though then they'd remove him from committees, and no one else seems to be fighting GOP overreach as hard as him, maybe Liz Warren, but I think he covers more bases (no pun intended)

Gillibrand is promoting herself, and she has presidential ambitions. She has been a flop in questioning Trump nominees, and Franken was a standout, playing "the woman who will clean up all that sex stuff in America" is her gig, Franken a convenient target.

WASHINGTON — Senior F.B.I. officials who helped investigate Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign last year wrote in text messages that Hillary Clinton “just has to win” and described a potential Trump victory as “terrifying,” according to texts released Tuesday night.

Alabama legislators who referred to blacks as “Aborigines” and “illiterates” may have already swung the Alabama election to Roy Moore because of a Photo ID passed to suppress the votes of blacks and Latinos. The legislators were very clear that the intent of the bill was to prevent blacks from voting and to destroy the “black power structure” in Alabama. The white voters in Alabama are the only ones who can save the state. We will see if they are up to the task.